|
|
|
Reviews
OREGON, THIS STORIED LAND
|
by William G. Robbins
|
| Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 2005. Photographs, maps, tables, bibliography, index. 240 pages. $19.95 paper. |
|
|
| William G. Robbins opens this account of the state he knows well with an unlikely topic, two near-brilliant pages that describe Silver Falls State Park near Salem. The park's history, he tells us, "provides a window to Oregon history during the 20th century" (p. xiii). He notes the park's natural environment, its native peoples, its logging period, federal involvement, and the recent transformation to a recreational area for urbanites. Then, in the same vein, he describes Steens Mountain in the greatly different environment of Oregon's far southeast corner. Taken together, these two vastly contrasting areas provide an intriguing hint of what is to follow. |
1
|
|
And Robbins does not disappoint. The above stated themes are a few of those that recur throughout an account of Oregon history that is essentially chronological. |
2
|
|
Not surprisingly from a respected environmental historian, the natural setting is depicted both in its untouched form and as modified over generations of inhabitants. He tells of Native Americans, but they do not disappear after the late 1800s, as so often happens in state histories; the reader follows the varying aspects of their continuing existence, interacting with non-native peoples and buffeted by fickle governmental policies. The federal presence is also constant from early explorations to the Oregon Donation Land Law to New Deal programs through dam development, demonstrating how much this state, like many others, is the beneficiary of federal involvement. The book also stresses the roles of big businesses that sponsored early exploration and enabled the fur trade and then dominated the various extractive industries of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The decline of the forest products industry in recent decades was followed by the rise of high-tech giants. |
3
|
|
Robbins views Oregon as an "immigrant society," always "a point of destination for people from elsewhere" (p. 207). The Euro-Americans who arrived in the early 1800s to overwhelm the native population were forerunners of everyone who came later. As the twenty-first century began, almost 55 percent of all Oregonians had been born in other states, and the minority population was increasing. The constant infusion of persons from out of state has not always been recognized for its effect on the direction Oregon has taken. |
4
|
|
Robbins does not fully embrace Oregon's vaunted reputation for popular reforms, some of which stemmed as much from reactions to the control by early corporate giants as from a few enlightened, public-spirited innovators. He notes a proclivity for ultra-conservative attitudes and actions that belie Oregon's claims as a liberal, reformist state. The late twentieth century ushered in growing transformations in the economy and the social fabric. Urbanization — not just in the Willamette basin but in distant areas such as the Bend environs — emerges as a theme in late chapters, which lead up to an engrossing but worrisome epilogue. |
5
|
|
Robbins is generally successful in recounting what is happening in places distant from dominant Portland and the Willamette Valley. Increasingly, he draws comparisons with neighboring states, particularly Washington, and he demonstrates the impact of regionalism in the Pacific Northwest, where common situations and issues overlap state lines. |
6
|
|
The small volume is no hurrah-for-Oregon piece of boosterism, but neither is it a downer. Rather, it is an account in which many conventionally accepted and often prideful themes of Oregon history are held up to close inspection. In many respects, Robbins finds Oregon to be little different than other states, because national trends affect all. Robbins greets his overall topic with a healthy but caring skepticism that penetrates issues. (An exception is a lapse in a chapter that celebrates the state's accomplishments in education, literature, and the fine arts.) |
7
|
|
A careful, precise writer, Robbins chooses words and images with care, which makes the reading all the more inviting. The occasional anecdotes and biographical descriptions are neither fillers nor efforts at lightheartedness; they help elucidate his account. Such personages as Abigail Scott Duniway, Tom McCall, Charles McNary, the contradictory and enigmatic Walter Pierce, and lesser known Oregonians are used to illustrate particular eras or themes. Some thirty photographs are adequate rather than exceptional, and the volume would have benefited from a general overview map of the state. The list of "Suggestions for Further Reading" (pp. 209–14) is just that rather than a thorough bibliography or source list. |
8
|
|
Oregon residents should read this book, which may take some occasional swallowing of pride, and persons from other states should also read it to learn about Oregon and to find a model that other writers might emulate. |
9
|
| Charles P. LeWarne
|
| Edmonds, Washington |
|
Content in the History Cooperative database is intended for personal, noncommercial use only. You may not reproduce, publish, distribute, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, modify, create derivative works from, display, or in any way exploit the History Cooperative database in whole or in part without the written permission of the copyright holder.
|